Some years ago Gary Brolsma (also known simply as the Numa Numa Guy) from Saddle Brook, New Jersey, wanted to amuse his friends and sent them this webcam video of himself miming to the song “Dragostea din tei” by Moldovan pop band O-Zone. His friends liked it, and shared it with their friends, who in turn sent it to their friends… The video turned into an Internet phenomenon watched by millions of people; Gary Brolsma became a media celebrity, receiving calls from ABC, NBC and other xxC networks to make interviews; press wrote articles about him, Internet community worshipped him, his telephone kept ringing and ringing; but soon all he wanted was simply his peace back.

Visiting Berchtesgaden, a little town in southern Germany where Adolf Hitler had his summer residence, Solana and I found a small museum, “Documentation centre”, high in the Alps, at the place where one of the houses that made up this huge complex of buildings and tunnels connecting them once stood. The day was a perfect autumn day, with warm sunshine, clear blue skies, and green, orange and brown slopes of the mountains all around us: the view from the terrace was almost as copied off the colorful postcards of this silent places where Hannibal once lost almost all of his elephants; but we both sat there depressed, as it always happens when one is confronted with evidence of man’s infinite will for barbarism. The sunshine, the blue skies, endless mountains painted in autumn colors: impotent contrast to piles of dead bodies puoring out of black and white photos, to hundreds of documents describing the building of the highway to catastrophe costing over 50 million lives, to recorded voices of villains shouting, threatening, preaching hatred and violence. And there, in the middle of this grim exhibition, I discovered two documents bearing the name of my hometown: a photo of hanged men in Pancevo in April 1941, and a report, already known to me, about the executions of Jews and Roma near Pancevo in October 1941. Strange, I thought, that out of thousands of other documents and “famous” places from that era someone has choosen these two documents for display here, in Hitler’s favorite vacation place, and put up the name of some small Serbian city alongside Auswitz and Treblinka. More importantly, it immediately reminded me that I have translated this morbid report from First lieutenant Walther more than a year ago, wanting to publish it on photobunt, but postponing it until October comes and eventually forgetting to do it, as it often happens in life; I even have in my car a plastic rose from the memorial built after the war on the executions site. Discovery of Pancevo in Berchtesgaden reminded me that now it was October again; so I knew what I have to do when I come back home.

In this enclosure First lieutenant Walther presents a report to the Regiment 9./I.R. 433 about the execution of Jews and Gypsies on the 27th and 30th of Oct. 1941. Please take note.

leg. Signature

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Secret

00 Hours, 1st 11.1941
First lieutenant Walther
Chief 9. /I.R. 433

Report on the execution of Jews and Gypsies

In accordance with an arrangement made by the SS department, I took the selected Jews and Gypsies from the prison camp in Belgrade. The trucks provided to me by Field Command Unit 599 proved to be inappropriate for two reasons:

1. They were driven by civilians. The secrecy was therefore not guaranteed.

2. They all were without cover or tarpaulin, so that the population of the city saw whom we had on the vehicles and where we drove. Wives of the Jews gathered in front of the camp and howled and screamed as we drove off.

The location where the shooting was carried out was very favorable. It was situated north of Pancevo, directly on the road Pancevo-Jabuka, with an embankment so high that a man can only climb up with considerable effort. Opposite to this embankment was a swamp area, and behind it a river. When flooded (as it was on 29.10.), the water nearly reaches up to the embankment. Escape of the prisoners could therefore be prevented with only a few men. Also favorable was the sandy soil, which eased the digging of the pits and thus shortened the work time.

After arrival, about 1 1/2 – 2 km before the selected location, the prisoners got off and reached it by foot. The trucks with the civil drivers were sent back immediately, in order to provide them with as few as possible reference points for suspicion. I then ordered that the road be closed for all traffic, because of safety and secrecy reasons.

Digging the pits required the longest time, while the shooting was very fast. (100 men 40 minutes)

Luggage and valuable items were collected before and transported in my truck, in order to hand them over to the NSV.

Shooting Jews is simpler than gypsies. One must admit that Jews go very calmly into death – they stand very calmly – while the gypsies howl, cry and continuously move, even if they are already standing at the place of execution. Some have even jumped into the pit before the salvo hit them and tried to pretend as if they were dead.

Initially my soldiers were not impressed upon. On the second day however it became already apparent that some of them do not possess the nerves to take part in executions over an extended period of time. My personal impression is that one has no mental inhibitions during the shooting; these however emerge some days after, when one is able to reflect on it in the evening and in peace.

W a l t h e r
First lieutenant

The paragraph in bold was emphasized by me. The transcript of the original “Walther report” in German language is to be found here.